“Well, ifIwas pretending to be engaged to someone I’d just met, and now they were in my house with my family, I would be a little wary. But then, in this line of work, you have to be.”
“I take it you had Kara pegged right away?” He wasn’t surprised. Jared was an excellent lawyer, good at reading people. He was often quieter than Thad who was used to being more front-facing in his real estate business. As a lawyer Jared relied on his instincts in reading people. The quieter someone was, the more they learned about others.
“Pretty much,” said Jared.
“Kara might be in serious trouble, and I need to know everything I can about her.” He explained the cop showing upand asking about Kara and then attacking him. “The surname he used was O’Brien, though I don’t know if that’s with an E or A. You’ll also want to check under Gallagher.”
“Holy shit…” Jared muttered. “Okay, Hayley is sleeping and Felicity is watching a movie. I’ll look the names up and text you when I have something.”
“Thanks.” Angelo hung up and settled back in the pillows of the hospital bed, keeping one eye on the door.
It seemed he was right after all, Karawason the run. He felt so helpless right now. He wanted to be home so he could protect her. Which was a joke in itself given his condition. She was in danger, and here he was stuck here in a hospital bed. But not for long. He’d get out of here, go straight to Kara and make sure she was safe… somehow.
My little Irish treasure.
Angelo was too tired to smile, but the soft, warm feeling in his chest was undeniable. The red-headed beauty was a mystery but somehow he knew he had to help her.
Angelo remembered Dante’s description of her spartan apartment which now took on a whole new significance. She was on the run from people willing to take the time and effort to track her down, attack her under the guise of a mugging, then interrogate and try to kill someone connected to her.
If the guy had been a dirty cop, that was bad. But if he wasn’t, it might be even worse.
Kara didn’t deserve to spend her life looking over her shoulder. However long she had been on the run, it was too long. And if he had anything to say about it, she wouldn’t be for much longer.
He imagined his mom scolding him about picking up strays again.
Yes, mom, maybe I am. And maybe I don’t care.
Because the thing about strays was that they needed someone, just like everyone. And while he couldn’t help everyone, he could help her.
And maybe, just maybe, it was because in such a short period of time, she’d managed to crawl into his heart.
Chapter Six
“Ican’t find anything on her.Anywhere.”
Angelo blinked, trying to make sense of Jared’s words. He glanced at the IV drip, wondering if he’d had too much morphine. Maybe that was why it was hard to focus. He closed his eyes, drew in a deep breath, and met Jared’s eyes.
“Say that again?”
Jared ran a hand through his dark hair and leaned over the foot of Angelo’s hospital bed.
“Angelo, I couldn’t find anything on this woman. There are hundreds of Kara Gallaghers on the top social media sites but none of them match her with any facial recognition software.”
“Wait… how did you run facial recognition on her?”
Jared’s face reddened. “I… uh… snapped a photo of her after we met in the waiting room. I didn’t know who she was, and I just had a feeling I might need to know later. So I snapped a shot of her using my camera’s zoom lens from across the room.” He paused before continuing. “I thought I had a breakthrough when I found her driver’s license, but it has an address from New York that links to a month-by-month cash lease apartment building. What little I can find leads to a dead end with this woman.”
He still didn’t understand. “There has to be more. Why can’t you find more on her? What about her social security number… previous jobs, where she went to high school anything?”
“There’s nothing, Angelo. Unless you come up with a social security number or a birth certificate or something… I can’t do much else. The woman is a ghost. And there’s only one reason I can think of that she wouldn’t be in any system,” Jared paused for effect and then continued. “Because someone doesn’t want her to be found. If I had to guess, she’s in the witness protection program.”
That made sense. He already knew she was running from something. Hiding from someone.
“There are several reasons why she might have gone into witness protection.” Jared started to pace the room. “She could have witnessed a crime, worked for criminal organization, or she’s related to someone who turned state’s evidence against whatever organization they worked for.”
Angelo had seen his fair share of movies and TV shows and thought he knew a little about how it worked. “So, does that mean she has a handler or someone from Witness Protection to look out of her?”
“Yes,ifshe is involved with WITSEC. We have no way to tell though. What worries me is the cop who attacked you, or the ‘fake cop’ or whatever,” Jared added. “He’s close to finding her. As a lawyer, I don’t like jumping to conclusions, but I think given the amount of circumstantial evidence involved, we can operate on the assumption that Kara O’Brien is the same person as Kara Gallagher.”
